WORK AND PENSIONS

Benefit Fraud Inspectorate

Malcolm Wicks: On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) has today announced its programme of activity for 2003–04 (Phase 8).
	The BFI is an independent unit within the Department for Work and Pensions that inspects and reports directly to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on the standard of benefit administration and counter-fraud activity in local authorities and Departmental agencies.
	As part of the Phase 8 activity, the BFI will be inspecting 8 of the poorest performing councils identified through the comprehensive performance assessment process: Barking and Dagenham, Bury, Isle of Wight, Knowsley, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth, Swindon, and Wokingham. These local authorities are collectively responsible for paying out nearly £200 million per year in housing benefits.
	BFI is also offering specialist advice as part of its Performance Improvement Action Team programme to a further 9 poor performing councils identified through the comprehensive performance assessment process.
	The BFI will undertake a first inspection of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, which performed well during the 2002 comprehensive performance assessment of its benefit service, but has consistently failed to provide quarterly management information to the Department for Work and Pensions.
	Follow-up inspections on other local authorities will also be undertaken. These authorities have been identified from post-inspection monitoring of performance.
	In addition to first and follow-up inspections, the BFI will also undertake comprehensive performance assessments in England on the benefits service for 183 district local authorities, and updates on the 115 single tier local authorities assessed in 2002.
	In Scotland, BFI will undertake 10 best value inspections in partnership with Audit Scotland. BFI will also undertake assessments of the benefits service for the 22 Welsh local authorities as part of the Wales Programme for Improvement.

TREASURY

Provisional Debt Management Report 2003–04

Ruth Kelly: In compliance with the Code for Fiscal Stability, the Provisional Debt Management Report 2003–04 is being published today. Copies are available in the House Library.

Invest to Save Budget: Round 5

Paul Boateng: I am pleased to announce that 48 bids from across the public and voluntary sectors have been successful in Round 5 of the Invest to Save Budget at a cost of £32 million including consequential funding for the devolved Administrations, and £28 million in total over the 3 years to 2005–06. The attached table describes the winners of this round.
	The Invest to Save Budget (ISB) is a joint Treasury/Cabinet Office initiative. It provides support for projects which increase the extent of joint working between different parts of government, identify innovative ways of delivering public services and reduce the cost of delivering the services and/or improve the quality and effectiveness of services delivered to the public. This is the fifth round of the ISB which started in 1999.
	It is expected that a total of £354 million will be spent on ISB projects over the period from 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2004. Round One was restricted to central government departments and their agencies. In the second and third rounds local authorities, police and fire authorities, health authorities, non-departmental public bodies and public corporations could also apply. In the fourth round, voluntary sector bodies were able to apply for the first time. The fifth round continues the partnership and innovation themes and is encouraging effective project and risk management.
	Winning projects have to agree an implementation plan with the sponsor departments. Each project has to provide six-monthly progress reports and carry out an evaluation of its success once it has been completed. Wider dissemination of the good practice from completed projects is then fed back into the whole spectrum of public service providers.
	
		
			 Lead Partner Title 
		
		
			 Central Government 
			 Cabinet Office Development of generic electronic forms to drive forward delivery of citizen focused transactional services.  
			   
			 Cabinet Office CV Bank and Job-Matching systems for civil service recruitment  
			   
			 DCMS Modernise the British Library's document supply service  
			   
			 DEFRA Emergency sub-sea hazard location facility 
			   
			 DEFRA Electronic Public Register to enable public participation in environmental decision making processes  
			   
			 DOH Rapid diagnosis of patients with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) and to develop electronic tools for the surveillance of MRSA in hospitals.  
			 DOH Integrated Care Records project will implement, in electronic form across specialist mental health care, education, primary care, and social services: multi-agency assessment/referral templates that communicate clinical information.  
			   
			 DTI CHAMELEON—to develop a comprehensive e-service on employment related regulations  
			   
			 DTI Web based bankruptcy applications. 
			   
			 DFT e-Business Management Information and service delivery System for the Forum for Mobility Centres (MAVIS)  
			   
			 FCO e-administration for Chevening scholarship applications  
			   
			 HM Customs & Excise Development of a web-driven 'alert' system to push multi-department messages relevant to importers and exporters, directly to the target audience, improving Government-wide customer service.  
			   
			 Home Office RESTART Project—resettlement project designed to break the cycle of re-offending and custody of adult offenders.  
			   
			 Home Office The Hope Project—targets prison inmates who have committed serial crime. The aim is to release offenders back into the community under close supervision, thereby, breaking the cycle of further drug abuse, and the commission of further crime  
			   
			 Home Office Joint National Asylum Service/UK Immigration Service to detect and deter illegal working by removing offenders and reducing fraud.  
			   
			 Home Office Project Vanguard—provision of e-communications on policing services that allows the public to transact e-business with the Kent Police Force  
			   
			 Home Office Lost and Stolen Passport Database 
			   
			 Home Office Project PLX—pilot electronic link from the Criminal Records Bureau to police forces to enable enhanced disclosure checks.  
			   
			 Home Office Increasing customer focus of the police service  
			   
			 Home Office South West Integration (SWING)—project to establish a pioneering dual prison/probation regional resettlement unit to help reduce prisoner re-offending  
			   
			 HM Treasury Banking across the Chancellor's Departments  
			   
			 Lord Chancellor's Department Access to registered users to information held at the DVLA  
			   
			 Lord Chancellor's Department Reducing Offending Through Advice (ROTA)-providing social welfare and legal advice services to prisoners via intranet and video conferencing services to link prisoners with advice providers.  
			   
			 Lord Chancellor's Department Pilot for Child Contact Centre—to test arrangements designed to ensure that children and their families (where the parents relationship has ended) are referred to child contact centres.  
			   
			 Lord Chancellor's Department Electronic Forms—improve access to civil and family justice for the citizen by providing an internet-based transaction channel to court forms.  
			 MOD Critical rainfall thresholds for pluvial flooding.  
			   
			 MOD To demonstrate a non-invasive drug detection capability to improve drug detection in the UK.  
			   
			 ODPM To modernise the system for revaluing business rates by using the Internet.  
			   
			 ODPM Website to provide businesses, individuals, local authorities and others with a path through ERDF information and application process and guidance on and State aid legislation.  
			   
			 Local Authorities 
			 Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Portable Intuitive Verbal Assessment tool (PIVAT)—to develop a portable assessment tool that will reduce duplication and delay and replace 'paper based' health and social care assessments.  
			   
			 Hampshire County Council Improving facilities for the public for notifying highway problems though the creation of a web based form and creation of an Interchange facility between Local authorities and Hampshire County Council.  
			   
			 London Connects Development of a comprehensive and modular 'e-democracy' tool kit. To enable London boroughs to consult citizens on-line on policy development and service planning.  
			   
			 Stockport Borough Council On-line transactional counselling service  
			   
			 Southampton City Council Electronic co-ordination of inter-agency referral systems and some centralised aspects of service delivery for social care in Southampton  
			   
			 South Yorkshire Partnership Transport Authority RESPOND—pilot of a demand responsive transport service in an area of multiple deprivations in Rotherham  
			   
			 City of Sunderland Council Amalgamation of citizen's personal details held by various local public services, then providing capacity for individuals to access their own information on- line using digital signatures to ensure accuracy of information.  
			   
			 Westminster City Council Project to establish a database containing immigration and local authority information on unaccompanied asylum seeking children  
			   
			 Voluntary and Community Sector  
			 Advice Sendee Alliance A pilot to test the use of on-line services to support a self-help approach to dealing with legal problems.  
			   
			 Bridgewater College Skills for Life—a project to pilot a life skills initiative focused on first time offenders.  
			   
			 Charity Commission for E & W Guidestar UK-project to build a shared and accessible website reporting the activities, finances and performance of voluntary sector organisations  
			   
			 Construction Industry Training Board Electronic testing and certification process for Gas Engineers.  
			   
			 Derby College More than on-line Registration (MoTOR)—to provide on-line attendance and achievement system accessible and responsive to learners. Registration data will be updated in the classroom enabling early warning of non-attendance.  
			   
			 Hampshire coalition of Disabled People Equipment Direct-project to provide informed advice to disabled people about independence enabling equipment  
			 London Quadrant Housing Trust Neighbournet Housing Benefit Module—to establish the viability of automating the payment of housing benefit from local authority to registered social landlord.  
			   
			 Manchester Metropolitan University Arts in Health—to provide arts based products for the NHS to enhance patient care. Using art to promote public health.  
			   
			 National Children's Bureau Children's Centre project -brings together a consortium of children's charities in order to improve the quality of their current services, develop new joint services and prepare a common building.  
			   
			 NEL Workforce Development Confederation Refugee Health Professionals—pilot project to develop a website to support health professionals who wish to re-qualify to work in the UK.  
			   
			 South East London Shared Services Partnership London-Wide Child Protection on Line (CPoL)—to provide electronic access to social services child protection registers to NHS Hospitals across London.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Threat of Terrorism

David Blunkett: When I last spoke to the House of Commons about terrorism on 3 March 2003, I made clear that this country continues to face a significant threat from international terrorism.
	In agreeing to renew Part Four of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, Parliament accepted that we need to continue to protect ourselves from those who recognise no legal procedures, no boundaries and no parameters in terms of the action they are prepared to take.
	The terrorist threat remains real, and is serious. In the context of the present situation and concern that terrorists may seek to exploit the commencement of hostilities with Iraq by attempting attacks.
	I should assure the House and the public that we have taken and are taking every feasible precautionary measure to protect British citizens both here and abroad.
	I must re-emphasise that if a warning is necessary to protect safety, we issue it—and will issue it—without hesitation. And we will give any further information that helps people respond effectively.
	As I promised the House of Commons on 3 March, we have set up a dedicated website, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism, which went live on 18 March. That website provides a central point to publish advice and information from the security and intelligence services, on civil resilience, and other material that departments publish. It gives advice to the public on what measures they can take to protect themselves and their families at home, at work and when preparing to go abroad. And it provides information on the measures the Government is taking to protect British citizens and British interests, including information on departments and agencies, legislation, protecting our infrastructure, and resilience and contingency planning.
	I further made it clear in a written statement on civil contingencies (available on the "reports and publications" section of the new website) laid before the House on the same day that we have taken important steps to improve our resilience and contingency planning to deal with terrorist attacks should they occur.
	The emergency services now have more equipment and trained officers to enable them to respond to a release of CBRN material and this has been accompanied by the publication of specific protocols for dealing with this kind of attack. For example, under a £5 million programme, the Department of Health has provided 360 mobile decontamination units; the CBRN Police Training Centre has been established at Winterbourne Gunner and the police now have 2,350 officers trained and equipped in CBRN response. Since 11 September 2001, £96 million has been spent on CBRN medical countermeasures, including spending on extra vaccines and antibiotics.
	We have also looked hard at local resilience and London resilience and taken steps at both these levels to review and improve capability through funding and personnel training. But we must continue to strengthen and improve our resilience